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Five-a-day of fruit and veg is good, but '10 is better'
Conclusion This research supports the idea that the more fruit and veg you eat the better – at least, up to 10 portions (800g) a day. It also suggests the number of people who die early might be reduced if they were to eat more than the current recommended guideline daily amount. However, before we take this at face value, there are some important considerations: There are likely to be many confounding factors that may have affected the results. It might be that people who eat a lot of fruit and veg are also more likely to be physically active, consume less alcohol, not smoke and be a healthy weight, or other facto...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 23, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Heart/lungs Cancer Medical practice Source Type: news

Exercise 'most proven method' to prevent return of breast cancer
Conclusion This was a helpful summary of recent research into how lifestyle changes impact on the risk of breast cancer returning, but it does have some limitations. Researching lifestyle factors separately is always difficult as they tend to clump together, making it difficult to pick apart individual factors. For example, people who are more physically active tend to have a healthier diet and are less likely to drink excessive amounts of alcohol or smoke. While the researchers say many studies attempt to make adjustments for these confounding factors, it is difficult to know which studies did this and how successful they...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 22, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Cancer QA articles Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news

Handful of nuts 'cuts heart disease and cancer' risk
Conclusions This systematic review finds evidence that nut intake may be linked with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and death. The systematic review has several strengths. It identified a large number of studies with a large total sample size. It also included only prospective cohorts assessing nut consumption and then followed up later disease outcomes. It excluded cross sectional studies, which assess diet and disease at the same time, and so can't show the direction of effect. It also excluded cohorts that have retrospectively questioned diet when the person already has the disease, which could be subjec...
Source: NHS News Feed - December 5, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Cancer Heart/lungs Source Type: news

Eating one egg a day may lower risk of stroke
Conclusion This research broadly supports previous studies in this area, which suggest eating eggs does not increase the chances of getting heart disease or stroke. It raises the possibility that eggs may decrease the risk of having a stroke, but there are limitations to the study, meaning this result may not be reliable. It's interesting that researchers did not find a "dose response" between stroke risk and the number of eggs eaten. Usually, if something is having an effect on the chances of getting a condition, you can see a linear pattern – having more of that food or treatment increases or decreases chanc...
Source: NHS News Feed - November 2, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Neurology Heart/lungs Source Type: news

New brain diet 'slows mental decline'
ConclusionThis observational study aimed to investigate the relationship between the MIND diet and its protective properties for mental decline in an older population. The study has several strengths, including the large sample size, long observational period of up to nine years, regular annual assessment of cognitive functions, and comprehensive assessment of diet. However, one of the main limitations is that this type of study cannot show cause and effect – it can only show an association between the diet and slower mental decline. There may be other unmeasured factors that account for the results, such as genetics, ...
Source: NHS News Feed - August 6, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Neurology Source Type: news

Half a handful of nuts a day 'reduces early death risk'
Conclusion This Dutch cohort of middle-aged to elderly adults generally found people were less likely to die in the following 10 years if they ate a small number of nuts a day compared with none. The study has strengths in its large sample size and that cause of death was followed up for the full cohort using valid medical codes. However, there are various points to bear in mind before we jump to the conclusion that nuts are the magic ingredient that will slash our risk of death. No clear trends It is difficult to draw any clear interpretations about how nut consumption may be associated with risk of death overall or fr...
Source: NHS News Feed - June 12, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Cancer Heart/lungs Diabetes Source Type: news

Fruit chemical may prevent organ damage
Conclusion This exciting set of experiments has identified the metabolic driver of tissue injury seen when blood supply is returned after a period of ischaemia. The researchers have also shown this process can be limited by using an injection of dimethyl malonate in mice and rats. It is likely the same increased metabolic processes occur in humans, so there are wide implications for the future, including the potential use of dimethyl malonate injections to prevent tissue damage during surgery. At present it is unclear how this could be used practically during a heart attack or stroke, and this will be one of many issues...
Source: NHS News Feed - November 6, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medical practice Medication Source Type: news

Fruit juice link to high blood pressure not proven
ConclusionThis cross-sectional study found a link between regular fruit juice consumption and slightly increased central blood pressure in a group of 130 largely healthy 50 to 70 year olds. People who drank juice daily had a systolic pressure (the upper figure) 3 to 4mmHg higher than those who drank juice rarely or occasionally.However, when measuring the blood pressure in the standard way, using an inflatable cuff around the arm, there was no link.  The media reports focus on the possibility that the slight raise in blood pressure could increase a person's risk of a variety of blood pressure-related complications. But it...
Source: NHS News Feed - October 13, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Food/diet Source Type: news

Lack of vitamin D may 'raise dementia risk'
Conclusion This cohort study of more than 1,650 elderly people has found that over 5.6 years, severe vitamin D deficiency is associated with approximately twice the risk of developing dementia or Alzheimer's disease. It also found moderate deficiency is associated with a 50% increase in risk compared with healthy levels of vitamin D. With this being a cohort study, it was not able to show that low levels of vitamin D caused dementia or Alzheimer's disease – it was simply able to show an association. Other factors that can increase the risk of developing dementia, such as a poor diet, lack of activity and general poor h...
Source: NHS News Feed - August 7, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Older people Neurology Mental health Source Type: news

Brits eating too much salt, sugar and fat
“Too much sugar, salt and fat: healthy eating still eluding many Britons,” The Guardian reports, while the Daily Mail rather bizarrely warns of a “fruit juice timebomb”. Both papers are covering a major survey that looked at the nation’s eating habits over recent years.The survey found that, overall, adults and children are eating too much saturated fat, added sugar and salt. We are also not getting the recommended levels of fruit, vegetables, oily fish and fibre that our bodies need. Who produced the survey?Public Health England, an agency of the Department of Health, has released data from the National Diet an...
Source: NHS News Feed - May 15, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet QA articles Source Type: news

Heart attack survivors 'gain from high-fibre diet'
Conclusion This was a well-designed study. Although it was a cohort study and so cannot prove causation, attempts were made to analyse the results while taking multiple factors into account. Its strengths include that it used data from a large number of people and measured dietary habits over the previous year, which may be a more accurate assessment than snap-shot 24-hour food questionnaires. However, there will still be room for bias in people's recall and estimates of portion size. There were a few limitations to the study: it was not able to take into account people who suffered from a heart attack and died before ...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 30, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Food/diet Source Type: news

Saturated fat link with heart disease questioned
This article is one doctor's opinion based on his own knowledge, research and experience. However, it is fair to say there is an ongoing debate about how far cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease, especially in people who are otherwise healthy. There is also a similar debate about the use of statins in people who have no evidence of cardiovascular disease. This is alongside ongoing research into the components of LDL and the different types of lipoproteins known to increase risk the most. None of this relevant new evidence is covered by the news reporting.   What should you eat? There is no need to change curren...
Source: NHS News Feed - October 23, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Food/diet QA articles Source Type: news

Eating your 5 A DAY 'could make you more optimistic'
Conclusion This is well-conducted research which has used a validated measure to assess the optimism of a sample of middle-aged American citizens and measure their blood antioxidant levels. The researchers found a link between higher carotenoid levels and higher optimism, but as the researchers rightly conclude, their findings do not prove cause and effect and it isn’t possible to say in which direction the relationship is going. It is possible that having higher levels of antioxidants in the body leads to better physical health and this in turn enhances optimism, but then it is equally possible that people who are in be...
Source: NHS News Feed - January 18, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Mental health Source Type: news